Ceramic electronic devices such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor are widely used as electronic devices having a small size, a large capacity and high reliability. The number of the ceramic electronic devices is large among electrical devices and electronic devices. Recently, as devices are downsized and performance of the devices gets higher, it is increasingly demanded that ceramic electronic devices have a small size, a large capacity and high reliability.
In the ceramic electronic devices, external electrodes are formed by a plating process in order to improve jointing between substrate terminals and the ceramic electronic devices during mounting. However, a metal for plating may be bonded to a part of a surface of a ceramic body that is not covered with the external electrodes, during the plating process. As the ceramic electronic devices are downsized, a distance between facing external electrodes gets shorter in a small product. When even a little amount of the metal for plating is bonded to the surface of the ceramic body of the small product, a leak current path is formed. Therefore, an insulating resistance may be remarkably reduced. And so, there are disclosed a technology for preventing bonding of the metal for plating (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-311676, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-242995, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-177085, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-251630, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-244119 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-251993).